Malawi News Online (31) - 06/23/97

MALAWI NEWS ONLINE/MALAWI NEWS ONLINE/MALAWI NEWS ONLINE

A fortnightly update of news from
Malawi

Edition # 31 23 June 1997

MALAWI NEWS ONLINE is written by Malawian journalists
in Malawi and brings you the news from their point
of view. It is assembled and edited in Denmark by South
Africa Contact, the former anti-apartheid movement,
publishers of i'Afrika, a quarterly magazine on Southern
Africa.

The fortnightly news updates from Malawi are provided
by our established network of journalists in Southern
Africa. We also distribute ZAMBIA NEWS ONLINE, MOZAMBIQUE
NEWS ONLINE and TANZANIA NEWS ONLINE and these will
be followed, in the not too distant future, by individual
news updates covering other Southern African countries,.

MALAWI NEWS ONLINE is brought to you by a co-operation
between South Africa Contact and Inform, the leading
alternative information network in Denmark.

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In this edition:

Feature:BIO-GAS SOLUTION FOR MALAWI

Stories:

1. AMERICAN GOVT FUNDS HIV/AIDS ACTIVITIES IN MALAWI

2. CUSTOMS IMPOUND VEHICLES IN DUTY EVASION CRACKDOWN

3. MALAWI POSTS AND TELECOMS DEFENDS MONOPOLY

4. MCP DISPUTES THREE BY-ELECTION RESULTS

5. MALAWI HOUSING CORPORATION UPS RENTS BY 90 PERCENT

6. BABY WITH BORN WITH TWO PAIRS HANDS AND LEGS

7. CUSTOMS WAGES WAR AGAINST DRUG TRAFFICKERS

Feature:

BIO-GAS SOLUTION FOR MALAWI

The Malawi Industrial Research and Technology Development
Centre (MIRTDC), concerned with the rapid rate at which
trees are being depleted in Malawi, intends to embark
on a project to generate biogas from human wastes,
as an alternative source of energy. The centre's
pilot project is set for Likoma Island, an island on
the northern part of Lake Malawi. This area has a high
deforestation rate and its only sources of electricity
are diesel-powered generators. Human waste, according
to the centre is a renewable source of energy that
is readily available everywhere. The pioneers of the
project are, however, uncertain about how the public
will react.

"There are a lot of toilets from which biogas can
be produced to light up the area (Likoma) and put a
stop to the depletion of trees," said the team
leader for the biogas project, Willy Muyila, in an
interview. His fear, however, is that people might
not easily accept the gas if it is to be used for cooking.
He said some people might reject it for the simple
reason that they felt they could not eat food cooked
with their own waste, adding that to dispel such negative
feelings, there will be the need for public awareness
campaigns. "People need to know that gas is gas
whatever its source. And in any case, nobody uses the
waste straight," he said. There are already some
projects creating biogas using cattle dung, banana
skins, sugar cane, trash, poultry and maize straw.

Statistics for 1995 indicate that 90 percent of Malawi's
population of over 11 million uses wood for fuel,
which accounts for 93 percent of the country's energy.
These figures do not include trees cut for timber and
other agricultural purposes such as tobacco curing.
According to MIRTDC, over 11 million cubic metres of
gas would save some 4,400 tonnes of trees each year
and, therefore, greatly reduce the deforestation rate.
"These figures are high enough to prompt us to
find alternative sources of energy. Deforestation should
be reduced to a bearable rate.

The centre launched the biogas technology promotion
programme in January last year to promote the use of
the technology especially by small and medium sized
enterprises. The centre is already financing one of
the nine biogas plants in the country. This is in Chikwawa,
south Malawi, where boiling water is used in salt manufacture.
Although the centre would love to see as many people
as possible using biogas, not many can afford to have
the plant installed in their homes if they do not use
it for commercial purposes. "It would be too expensive
for those who want to use the gas for domestic use
only," he said. However, Muyila hopes that with
the help of government and donors, people will be able
to install biogas plants for domestic use as well.

The Malawi government will only be able to finance such
initiatives if the Ministry of Research and Environmental
Affairs establishes an environmental fund, according
to the Assistant Director for the Environmental Management
and Monitoring Group, Eta M'mangisa. She said the
ministry was trying to get parliament to appropriate
money for the fund to help protect depleting natural
resources. "But at the moment, we do not have
a budget line so it is difficult to finance such a
project," she said. She added that although public
awareness campaigns would definitely be required, Malawians
would not want to lag behind and hopes that they will
accept it just as their Tanzanian neighbours. There,
households are already using it for cooking.

Stories: 1. AMERICAN GOVT FUNDS HIV/AIDS ACTIVITIES
IN MALAWI

The American government has reserved K129 million (US$
8.6 million) for HIV/Aids and family planning activities
in Malawi for 1997. United States Ambassador to Malawi,
Peter Cheveas, said the funding through the support
to Aids and family health (Stafh), reflected an increase
over the previous years' funding.

Chaveas said he was happy that a recent survey on activities
of Stafh funded projects had shown positive results.
He said that as an example, the use of contraceptive
methods among women of reproductive age had gone up
from 4 percent in 1992 to 14 percent last year. "It
is likely that Malawi will achieve her 20 percent contraceptive
prevalence rate by 1998," he said. Chaveas also
said rapid population growth and HIV/Aids were at present
depriving Southern African countries, including Malawi,
of some of their most valuable resources.

The National Aids Control Programme estimates that about
one million people may be carrying the HIV virus, and
that close to 200,000 may have already died of Aids.

2. CUSTOMS IMPOUND VEHICLES IN DUTY EVASION CRACKDOWN

The Customs Department has seized over 100 vehicles
in a crackdown on duty evasion worked by using fake
documents for cars brought into the country .

Deputy Controller of Customs, Dominic Mpango, said
in an interview his department had decided to start
impounding the vehicles when it discovered that many
car owners were using forged Customs clearing documents
when registering their vehicles in the country.

He said the forgeries ranged from forged receipts to
blue books. He said quite a large number of people
were also driving vehicles for which they had not paid
duty.

3. MALAWI POSTS AND TELECOMS DEFENDS MONOPOLY
In a statement, The Malawi Posts and Telecommunications
Corporation has defended its monopoly of the telecommunications
industry, saying that to allow competition would cripple
MPTC and deny rural areas access to telecommunication
services. "Private companies will only be interested
in commercial areas like Blantyre, but MPTC still has
the task of extending telecommunications to rural areas."

This was in reaction to strong criticism against MPTC,
a government parastatal, which many say is inefficient.
Donors, during the Consultative Group meeting in France
recently, expressed concern over poor telecommunications
services in Malawi. They urged government to allow
private sector participation in the field as one way
of improving the services.

According to Malawi Posts and Telecoms, private companies
are likely to grab all business in the cities, but
will not invest in unprofitable rural Malawi. This
will deny MPTC a source of revenue and the majority
of Malawians will not have access to telecommunication
facilities.

Over 80 percent of the population live in rural areas.

4. MCP DISPUTES THREE BY-ELECTION RESULTS

The opposition Malawi Congress Party, which retained
two seats and lost one to the ruling UDF in the recent
polls, has said it will take results of three by-elections
to the High Court for alleged vote rigging and fraud.
''The Electoral Commission has failed to resolve our
complaints and we will try the courts,'' said MCP publicity
chief Hetherwick Ntaba. ''We believe the Commission
is not independent, therefore we will go to court where
we are assured of judicial independence.''

UDF won four seats in the polls in its southern region
stronghold including one which it grabbed from MCP.
MCP won two in central Malawi while Aford retained
the seat in the north. MCP said it would dispute results
in Nsanje, Mulanje and Chiradzulu, all won by UDF.

Peter Mpasu, the Commission's under secretary,said the
MCP is free under the electoral law to refer their
complaints to court.

5. MALAWI HOUSING CORPORATION UPS RENTS BY 90 PERCENT

The Malawi Housing Corporation (MHC) has raised its
rents by 90 per cent in defiance of its lawyers' advice
to hold on until Parliament reviews the MHC Act which
does not allow the corporation to make profits. Justice
Duncan Tambala ruled April 25 that the corporation
had violated Section 7 of its Act when it raised rents
by more than 100 per cent last year.

The judge ordered the Corporation to raise rents by
no more than 26 per cent.

MHC lawyer, Dick Chagwamnjira, said at a meeting held
with MHC officials to review the ruling, that it had
been agreed that Parliament should first amend the
Act before the current increase could be affected.
However, MHC General Manager, Lineus Msiska, said
in a statement that Tambala's ruling limited the corporation
to raising its rents by a maximum of 26 per cent between
April 1 and March 31, 1997. Msiska said the corporation
experienced acute cash flow problems as a result of
the court ruling, saying MHC has increased rents once
again in order to break even.

Tenants have reacted angrily to the increase, some complaining
that they have already been served eviction orders.
"My house was K768 (US$51.2) per month , now it
is at K1,725 (US$115)," complained one tenant,
Rebecca Chatepa, who together with the Consumer Association
of Malawi, successfully sued MHC when it increased
rent last year.

Cama Executive Secretary, John Kapito, described MHC's
move as "undesirable", saying it shows that
MHC does not respect the courts.

6. BABY WITH BORN WITH TWO PAIRS HANDS AND LEGS

Doctors at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre
are expected to decide whether or not to operate on
a baby boy joined to another body at the heart making
him a rare Siamese twin with one head but two pairs
of legs and hands.

In spite of having a healthy appetite, the baby boy's
doctor, paediatrician, Erick Borgstein, said the baby
was born with two complications: he has an extra body
which grows out of his trunk and exomphalus, a continuation
of the umbilical cord, which looks like a sore and
which must heal first before anything surgical can
be attempted.

The mother of the baby, Jennifer Sadiki, from Dedza
in central Malawi, said the baby, born at the end
of May, eats so much. ''Nurses even allow me to go
into the nursery when it is not feeding time,' she
said.

7. CUSTOMS WAGES WAR AGAINST DRUG TRAFFICKERS

The Malawi Customs Department, alarmed by the increase
in cases of drug-trafficking, is preparing itself to
join a war against drug barons.

The department's head of investigations, Jim Barnard,
said in an interview that the department intends to
start training its staff to deal with drug-trafficking
and push for the law to accommodate the new role before
joining forces with the police anti-drug squad. Barnard
said drug-trafficking was a major part of the British-funded
customs reform programme. Training is expected to start
before the end of the year.

Barnard noted that illicit drugs are brought in and
out of the country with ease because the police were
not properly equipped for an effective battle in this
war. He said police lack transport to patrol the borders,
while drug detecting police dogs are also not fully
used because of the same transport problem. He also
said the drug war requires a computer network with
other countries in the region and overseas, to monitor
the movement of drug-traffickers.

He said agreement had already been reached between his
department and the police to set up a joint intelligence
system and exchange of information. He said teaming
up with the police would mean doubled efforts to produce
effective results as was the case in other parts of
the world. He said the customs department would have
a computer with an international data base of drug
traffickers which will be connected to Southern and
Central Africa. The network will be controlled from
the World Customs Organisations in Brussels, Belgium.

According to police, Malawi is mainly a transit point
for dangerous drugs such as cocaine and mandrax from
Asian countries, but produces cannabis (known locally
as chamba), which finds its way out to markets in South
Africa and Europe.